r on Wednesday or Thursday, between ten and
one. _This is by the bishop's desire_. If you will so far
oblige me as to let me have a line naming either day, and
the hour which will suit Mr. Harding, I will take care
that the servants shall have orders to show him in without
delay. Perhaps I should say no more--but still I wish you
could make your father understand that no subject will be
mooted between his lordship and him which will refer at
all to the method in which he may choose to perform his
duty. I for one am persuaded that no clergyman could
perform it more satisfactorily than he did, or than he
will do again.

On a former occasion I was indiscreet and much too
impatient, considering your father's age and my own. I
hope he will not now refuse my apology. I still hope also
that with your aid and sweet pious labours we may live to
attach such a Sabbath-school to the old endowment as may,
by God's grace and furtherance, be a blessing to the poor
of this city.

You will see at once that this letter is confidential. The
subject, of course, makes it so. But, equally, of course,
it is for your parent's eye as well as for your own,
should you think proper to show it to him.

I hope my darling little friend Johnny is as strong as
ever--dear little fellow. Does he still continue his rude
assaults on those beautiful long silken tresses?

I can assure you your friends miss you from Barchester
sorely, but it would be cruel to begrudge you your sojourn
among flowers and fields during this truly sultry weather.

Pray believe me, my dear Mrs. Bold,
Yours most sincerely,
OBADIAH SLOPE

Barchester, Friday.

Now this letter, taken as a whole, and with the consideration that
Mr. Slope wished to assume a great degree of intimacy with Eleanor,
would not have been bad but for the allusion to the tresses.
Gentlemen do not write to ladies about their tresses unless they are
on very intimate terms indeed. But Mr. Slope could not be expected
to be aware of this. He longed to put a little affection into his
epistle, and yet he thought it injudicious, as the letter would, he
knew, be shown to Mr. Harding. He would have insisted that the letter
should be strictly private and seen by no eyes but Eleanor's own,
had he not felt that such an injunction would have been disobeyed.
He therefore restrained his passion, did not sign himself "